A bearded Man, bust length, wearing a chain of office, in a painted oval

Details

Govaert Flinck* (1615-1660)
A bearded Man, bust length, wearing a chain of office, in a painted oval
oil on panel
25½ x 19in. (64.8 x 48.2cm.)

Provenance

Löhr, Leipzig von Boxberg, Dresden, 1882 as Rembrandt.
Dr. Martin Schubart; sale, Hugo Helbing, Munich, Oct. 23, 1899, lot 50 as Rembrandt.
with Colnaghi, London as Rembrandt.
with W.C. Sedelmeyer, Paris, 1900 (Catalogue of 100 Paintings, no. 28) as Rembrandt.
C.A. Griscom, Philadelphia as Rembrandt.
Leopold Koppel, Berlin, 1914 as Rembrandt.
Albert Koppel, Toronto as Rembrandt.
with Rosenberg and Steibel, New York, from whom purchased by the present owners on Jan. 5, 1949 for $35,000 as Rembrandt.

Literature

W. von Bode, Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei, 1883, p. 617 as Rembrandt.
E. Dutuit, Tableaux et Dessins de Rembrandt, 1883, p. 41, no. 368 as Rembrandt.
A. von Wurzbach, Rembrandt-Galerie, no. 85 as Rembrandt.
Luecke, Dresdener Nachrichten, Oct. 15, 1889 as Rembrandt.
W. von Seidlitz. Kunstwart, 3rd year, 3rd item as Rembrandt.
A. Bredius, Zeitschrift fuer bildende Kunst, 1890, p. 190 as Rembrandt.
A. Frimmel, Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst, 1894, p. 218 as Rembrandt.
W. von Bode & C. Hofstede de Groot, Rembrandt, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis seiner Gemälde, II, 1897, p. 159, pl. 139 as Rembrandt.
C. Hofstede de Groot, Sammlung Schubart, 1899, p. 15, no. 50 as Rembrandt.
A. Valentiner, Rembrandt, 1906, p. 70 as Rembrandt.
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné etc., VI, 1915, pp. 231-2, no. 443 as Rembrandt.
A. Bredius, Rembrandt Gemälde, 1935, no. 149 as Rembrandt.
J. Rosenberg, Rembrandt, 1948, p. 42, fig. 55 as Rembrandt.
K. Bauch, Rembrändt Gemalde, 1966, no. 408 as Rembrandt.
A. Bredius, Rembrandt. The Complete Edition of Paintings, revised by H. Gerson, 1969, p. 132, no. 149, illustrated 'an attribution to Rembrandt seems doubtful'.

Exhibited

Leipzig, 1889, no. 187 as Rembrandt.
Munich, 1895, no. 44 as Rembrandt.
Amsterdam, 1898 as Rembrandt.
Berlin, Staatliche Preussische Museen, Feb. 22-April 6, 1930, no. 367 as Rembrandt.
Cambridge, Fogg Museum of Art, 1948 as Rembrandt.
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum, 1957 as Rembrandt.

Lot Essay

The attribution of the present painting to Rembrandt went unquestioned until it was challenged by Horst Gerson in 1969. While Jakob Rosenberg (op. cit.) considered it an 'incisive study', Gerson (op. cit.) found it 'much harder in execution'.

Dr. Werner Sumowski, in a letter dated March 4, 1996, attributes the present painting, from a transparency, to Govaert Flinck. In another letter, dated Feb. 2, 1996 he compares the painting to two other imaginary portraits of old men by Flinck: one sold at Christie's, London, Dec. 11, 1992, lot 79 (£60,000), (W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 1983, VI, p. 3708, no. 22796, illustrated p. 3869); and the other in the Gemäldegalerie, Cassel (Sumowski, op. cit., V, p. 3100, no. 2084, illustrated p. 3216).